Clouds and rain in San Sebastian (1st September)

Shona had a plan for our second day in San Sebastian - lie on the beach and continue our tans because it is over a month before we will be at the beach again. However the Gods have other plans because today it is overcast with drizzle. Not at all ideal beach/tanning weather. Nevertheless we intend to check out all San Seb has to offer. First up we wander along to the surf beach, where the surf isn't that good, but there are die hard surfers in the water attempting to catch some waves. Due to the bad weather not many people are about and it's siesta time so a lot of shops are shut. Our walk turns us around to wander all the way back to the other side of the non surf beaches to catch the funicular up the hill. Back in 1910 a funicular was built to take people to the top of the hill where a fun fair was located. The fun fair is looking really tired now, but would have been quite cute in it's hay day. There are dodgems, a roller coaster (with awesome views) bumper boats, trampolines, slides and a few shooting stalls. You can still go on some of the rides, but we decide we'd rather climb the tower at the top of the hill to get an even better view (as per our previously posted 'climb something tall in town' policy). Mike was not so keen on the height, but he was really brave and took some great photos of San Sebastian and the Atlantic ocean! Dinner tonight was to be a self guided tapas or pinxtos crawl. We are staying in the heart of the old town and the pinxtos are fabulous. Our street has lots of little places and we have decided we'd like to try an option at each place. We order un blanc vino (1x white wine) and un cerveza (1x beer) plus help ourselves to the pinxtos that take our fancy. Imagine walking into a bar and the bar is covered in plates layered up with different food. You are given a plate and you walk through picking out which ones you would like to eat. If you've chosen a hot one (like the little mushroom pie that Mike had) it is taken off you to heat out the back. There are plenty of serviettes for your fingers and the sign of a good pinxtos place is lots of serviettes on the floor as that is where you put them once you've used them. Shona loved the bread with anchovies and chopped tomato and cucumber. Or there was the bread (think french stick sliced) with sun dried tomato, brie cheese and prosciutto. We make our way down the street and back up the other side checking out four places in total. The food is delicious, but since we are so close to home (across from the front door) we decide to have a pit stop. The pit stop turned into a final stop because we started chatting to the Austrian girls (Andrea, Veronica and Ingrid) who were in our hostel. They are also doing busabout, so we compared stories and talked about the differences in our cultures, food and life in general. Before we knew it, it was 1:30pm so we headed to bed in order to get some sleep... and because the 3 Spanish girls who were also staying at the hostel were telling us to be quiet!